Lesson 1, Venetian dialect
Venetian is descended from Vulgar Latin and influenced by the Italian language. Venetian is attested as a written language in the 13th century. There are also influences and parallelisms with Greek and Albanian in words such as pirón (fork), inpiràr (to fork), caréga (chair) and fanèla (T-shirt).
The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Venetian Republic, when it attained the status of a lingua franca in the Mediterranean. Notable Venetian-language authors include the playwrights Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) andCarlo Gozzi (1720–1806). Following the old Italian theatre tradition (Commedia dell'Arte), they used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and plays by Goldoni and Gozzi are still performed today all over the world. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad byCasanova (1725–1798) and Francesco Boaretti, and the poems of Biagio Marin(1891–1985). Notable too is a manuscript titled Dialogue of Cecco di Ronchitti of Brugine about the New Starattributed to Girolamo Spinelli, perhaps with some supervision by Galileo Galilei for scientific details.[8]
However, as a literary languageVenetian was overshadowed by Dante'sTuscan "dialect" (the best known writers of the Renaissance, such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Machiavelli, were Tuscan and wrote in the Tuscan language) and languages of France likeOccitan and the Oïl languages.
Even before the demise of the Republic, Venetian gradually ceased to be used for administrative purposes in favor of the Tuscan-derived Italian language that had been proposed and used as a vehicle for a common Italian culture, strongly supported by eminent Venetian humanists and poets, from Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), a crucial figure in the development of the Italian languageitself, to Ugo Foscolo (1778–1827).
Virtually all modern Venetian speakers are diglossic with Italian. The present situation raises questions about the language's medium term survival. Despite recent steps to recognize it, Venetian remains far below the threshold of inter-generational transfer with younger generations preferring standard Italian in many situations. The dilemma is further complicated by the ongoing large-scale arrival of immigrants, who only speak or learn standard Italian.
In the past, however, Venetian spread to other continents as a result of mass migration from the Veneto region between 1870 and 1905 and 1945 and 1960. This itself was a by-product of the 1866 annexation, because the latter subjected the poorest sectors of the population to the vagaries of a newly integrated, developing national industrial economy centered on north-western Italy. Tens of thousands of peasants and craftsmen were thrown off their lands or out of their workshops, forced to seek better fortune overseas.
Venetian migrants created large Venetian-speaking communities inArgentina, Brazil (see Talian), andMexico (see Chipilo Venetian dialect), where the language is still spoken today. Internal migrations under theFascist regime also sent many Venetian speakers to other regions of Italy, like southern Lazio.
Currently, some firms have chosen to use the Venetian language in advertising as a famous beer did some years ago (Xe foresto solo el nome, "only the name is foreign").[9] In other cases advertisements in the Venice region are given a "Venetian flavour" by adding a Venetian word to standard Italian: for instance an airline used the verb xe (Xe sempre più grande, "it is always bigger") into an Italian sentence (the correct Venetian being el xe sempre più grando)[10] to advertise new flights from Marco Polo Airport[citation needed].
On March 28, 2007 the Regional Council of Vèneto officially recognized the existence of the Venetian language (Łéngua Vèneta) by passing with an almost unanimous vote a law on theTutela e valorizzazione della lingua e della cultura veneta ("Law on the Protection and Valorisation of the Venetian Language and Culture") with the vote of both governing and opposition parties.
The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Venetian Republic, when it attained the status of a lingua franca in the Mediterranean. Notable Venetian-language authors include the playwrights Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) andCarlo Gozzi (1720–1806). Following the old Italian theatre tradition (Commedia dell'Arte), they used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and plays by Goldoni and Gozzi are still performed today all over the world. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad byCasanova (1725–1798) and Francesco Boaretti, and the poems of Biagio Marin(1891–1985). Notable too is a manuscript titled Dialogue of Cecco di Ronchitti of Brugine about the New Starattributed to Girolamo Spinelli, perhaps with some supervision by Galileo Galilei for scientific details.[8]
However, as a literary languageVenetian was overshadowed by Dante'sTuscan "dialect" (the best known writers of the Renaissance, such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Machiavelli, were Tuscan and wrote in the Tuscan language) and languages of France likeOccitan and the Oïl languages.
Even before the demise of the Republic, Venetian gradually ceased to be used for administrative purposes in favor of the Tuscan-derived Italian language that had been proposed and used as a vehicle for a common Italian culture, strongly supported by eminent Venetian humanists and poets, from Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), a crucial figure in the development of the Italian languageitself, to Ugo Foscolo (1778–1827).
Virtually all modern Venetian speakers are diglossic with Italian. The present situation raises questions about the language's medium term survival. Despite recent steps to recognize it, Venetian remains far below the threshold of inter-generational transfer with younger generations preferring standard Italian in many situations. The dilemma is further complicated by the ongoing large-scale arrival of immigrants, who only speak or learn standard Italian.
In the past, however, Venetian spread to other continents as a result of mass migration from the Veneto region between 1870 and 1905 and 1945 and 1960. This itself was a by-product of the 1866 annexation, because the latter subjected the poorest sectors of the population to the vagaries of a newly integrated, developing national industrial economy centered on north-western Italy. Tens of thousands of peasants and craftsmen were thrown off their lands or out of their workshops, forced to seek better fortune overseas.
Venetian migrants created large Venetian-speaking communities inArgentina, Brazil (see Talian), andMexico (see Chipilo Venetian dialect), where the language is still spoken today. Internal migrations under theFascist regime also sent many Venetian speakers to other regions of Italy, like southern Lazio.
Currently, some firms have chosen to use the Venetian language in advertising as a famous beer did some years ago (Xe foresto solo el nome, "only the name is foreign").[9] In other cases advertisements in the Venice region are given a "Venetian flavour" by adding a Venetian word to standard Italian: for instance an airline used the verb xe (Xe sempre più grande, "it is always bigger") into an Italian sentence (the correct Venetian being el xe sempre più grando)[10] to advertise new flights from Marco Polo Airport[citation needed].
On March 28, 2007 the Regional Council of Vèneto officially recognized the existence of the Venetian language (Łéngua Vèneta) by passing with an almost unanimous vote a law on theTutela e valorizzazione della lingua e della cultura veneta ("Law on the Protection and Valorisation of the Venetian Language and Culture") with the vote of both governing and opposition parties.
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